Bill Pearl

Never heard of a famous vegetarian bodybuilder? Bill Pearl is probably the most well-known of vegetarian bodybuilders. At his own peak as a bodybuilder when he last won the Mr. Universe in 1971, Bill weighed 242 pounds at a height of 5'10" and his arms measured 21 inches! Bill stopped using steroids by 1961.

He won the professional Mr. Universe title in 1971, at the age of 41, without the use of steroids and as a vegetarian, and is recognized as one of the all-time greats of bodybuilding. Bill's diet is lacto-ovo vegetarian, which means he eats eggs and dairy products.

He describes his experiences with the conversion to vegetarianism.
"With each succeeding year the diet (lacto-ovo vegetarian), I've felt better.
I'm more healthy, I can train with more energy, and I'm not as much of a "hard guy" as I used
to be. I've become more concerned with my fellow man and the other inhabitants
I share the planet with. …I have now been vegetarian for almost 20 years.
We have no fish, fowl, or red meat in our diet. Yet I can still carry the same
amount of muscle as I did in winning my four Mr. Universe titles. People can't
believe it. They think that to have big muscles you have to eat meat - it's a persistent
and recurring myth. But take it from me, there's nothing magic about eating
meat that's going to make you a champion bodybuilder. Anything you can find in
a piece of meat, you can find in other foods as well."